World water day – 22 March. Nine tips to help you save water

The UN General Assembly designated March 22 as “World Water Day” fifteen years ago, to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide.

It’s hard for us in the West, to imagine having no access to safe drinking water. But more than a billion people (roughly 20% of the world population) lack drinking water and over 2.6 billion lack adequate hygiene services.

The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day. In some countries, women walk over six miles a day to collect drinking water for their families.

Last year, family and friends of mine were without tap water for nearly 2 weeks after flooding rendered the local water plant out of action. It was a sobering time; one of deep reflection and lifestyle changes. Many people learned a lot about themselves, their human spirit and human nature in general.

There were some very ugly sights, and some heart warming stories to come out of the ‘disaster’ as well.

Yet, this was nothing, when you compare our lifestyles to others far less fortunate than ourselves

So what can we do to mark World Water Day?

To me, the most important thing we can do is to think of others. We can learn to share more, take less and be respectful and humble for all that we have. We might complain about the taste, the hardness, our water bills, the odd day when the water that comes out of our taps is laden with copper, but in all honesty, we have it pretty easy.

Let’s stop and consider what it might be like to walk six miles every day to collect water. Or how it might be to not have enough water to grow food. Imagine what it might be like to lose one of your children to disease caused by poor hygiene.

Keeping these thoughts in mind when we go about our daily lives, brings an awareness which might help us to be less wasteful.

In practical terms, here are nine tips to help you save water:

1- Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth or shave.

2- Take a shower instead of a bath, or bathe with a friend 😉 When you take a shower, stick a bucket in there to catch the water and use it to flush the toilet.

3- Install a water butt (or two or three) and use the water for plants in summertime or for washing the car.

4- When you boil things like pasta or potatoes, cook extra portions for using later in the week or freezing so that you use less water.

5- Use water from cooking vegetables, pasta or rice for making stocks, soup or gravy. If you don’t need any, cool it and use it to water your house plants.

6- Only run the washing machine, and dishwasher if you have one, on full. Make good use of the ‘half load’ switch, if you have one.

7- Before you pour any water down the drain, ask yourself if you can reuse it. Could you pour it onto a plant, flush the toilet with it or clean some patio furniture with it?

8- Fix dripping taps – you can save around 4 litres per day this way.

9- Consider your indirect usage of water. For example, cotton takes much more water than hemp or bamboo to grow; so choose hemp or bamboo clothing.

Finally, think of yourself too. Considering we, as humans are about 80% water (I think – I didn’t listen very well in my biology lessons), we should be drinking around 2 litres of water per day. (Read the fascinating book above by clicking on it) Do you honour your body by drinking that much?

What about your water filter – have you changed the cartridge recently?

@Claus D Jensen: Hi Claus, good to see you and thank you for taking time to comment. I’m glad you like the list. We could all do with saving water wherever we are. It’s something I sometimes forget, so writing posts like this is as much for me as our readers!
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